Parisians Pierre-Charles Cros, Olivier Bon and Romée de Goriainoff weren't your average teenagers. Rather than unsophisticated nights on the tiles, they saved their pocket money for decent wine and splendid restaurants. Their passion for the finer things in life led to lengthy sojourns in New York and London, where the friends discovered the craft of a perfectly mixed cocktail. Fifteen years later, they returned to Paris so accomplished in the art of making the perfect martini they'd make James Bond purr.

Then two years ago this band of brothers opened the Experimental Cocktail Club, a trim, elegant space which spearheaded a move away from the large nightclubs of the last 20 years towards smaller, more intimate venues with their own identities: places where lovers canoodle in corners, and you can dance on small, makeshift dancefloors - all spun along by seductive concoctions of spirits.

Along with the Cocktail Club collective's newest venture, the darkly decadent Curio Parlor, a sprinkling of other cosy, classy places has arisen out of the dust of defunct or dying superclubs. Reasonable prices, cool music, quirky concerts and exhibitions, passionate bar staff and owners who actually work in their own venues mean they are a world away from the grim 1st arrondissement dungeons with their €25 cocktails and spooky 60-year-old men squiring skinny models.

The Experimental Cocktail Club and the Curio Parlor

Avant-garde New York designer, Cuoco Black designed these bars, on opposing sides of the Seine, to contrast with and complement each other: you'll find the Curio Parlor in a street leading from the Seine into the newly chic 5th arrondissement, whereas the Experimental Cocktail Club inhabits the slightly seamier, eastern part of the 2nd. The golden twilight stylishness of the Cocktail Club is the natural precursor to the Wildean shadows and taxidermied curiosities of the Curio Parlor. The former's bestselling Experience 1 cocktail is a marvel with vodka, lemongrass, basil and elderflower cordial. At the Curio Parlor, take a dram of Nikka whisky, a burst of fire in the mouth that lingers long after the first taste.
• Experimental Cocktail Club, 37, rue Saint-Sauveur (00 33 1 45 08 88 09, blackbookmag.com/experimentalcocktailclub, metro Sentier or Réaumur Sébastopol). Curio Parlor, 16 Rue des Bernardins, (+1 44 07 12 47, facebook.com/curioparlor.com, metro Maubert-Mutualité).

Aux Petits Joueurs

Owners Olivier and Pierre are determined that their bar/restaurant won't become a bobo (bourgeois-bohemian) hangout. So they have decked it out like a big friendly canteen, whose unpretentious menu avoids overpriced, undercooked dishes. Wash down their inexpensive confit of duck with apples and garlic, or fresh scallops à la provençale with an organic Côtes du Rhône, while listening to world-class jazz manouche (it's the top Paris venue for this type of Django Reinhardt-inspired music). The Aux Petits Joueurs gallery in an adjoining room is hosting an exhibition by Parisian photographer Cédric Desrez, evoking a winter's night in a fragile and beautiful lanscape. Olivier despairs of swanky Parisian jazz bars. Aux Petits Joueurs is definitely not one of them, but it can still boast some of the city's best musicians.
• 59, rue Mouzaïa (+1 42 41 23 80, auxpetitsjoueurs.com, metro Pré Saint-Gervais).

Les Mères Veilleuses

Just up the road from Aux Petits Joueurs, this utterly delightful bar is run by four Italian girls whom locals refer to as Drôles de Dames (what the French dubbed Charlie's Angels). This is the place to go if you want to mingle with a genial clientele or if you're a musician who's looking for a gig (they have a very open-doors music policy and a little stage complete with a comfy armchair for acts who have imbibed too much beer during the course of their set). Les Mères Veilleuses celebrates its first birthday with a travel-themed music festival which boasts intriguing-sounding entertainment like Excited French Chanso' and Those Who Don't Walk Straight. And it's free to get in.
• 67, rue de Mouzaia (+1 42 00 44 12, myspace.com/lesmeresveilleuses, metro Pré Saint-Gervais).

La Feline

Any stray cats, lost rock'n'rollers or bemused burlesque girls should prowl their way to this backstreet bar because it'll feel like a home from home. Psychobilly sounds abound and statuesque six-foot burlesque fantasies made flesh such as Juliette Dragon and Louise de Ville make regular appearances by the glow of burning torches. The devil is in the detail, however, and the devil in La Feline is sharp-eyed and sharper-sideburned owner Pat, an affable rockabilly raconteur, who ensures every evening runs like greased lightning.
• 6, rue Victor Letalle (+1 40 33 08 66, myspace.com/lafelinebar, metro Ménilmontant).

Chez Moune

Founded in 1936, the oldest lesbian cabaret in Paris was recently relaunched without losing any of its outré charisma. Black tie hostesses welcome you to an art deco extravaganza of chanson soirées, transvestite improvisation acts and tea-dances for girls, with female DJs Candy and Kristel playing funk rock and electro between the very walls where Edith Piaf and consorts once spent long languorous evenings.
• 54, Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (+1 45 26 64 64, chez-moune.com, metro Pigalle).

Piston Pelican

This bar has worn many hats in its time: from the gaudy bonnet of a 19th-century brothel, to the 60s skinny brim fedora of the fill-your-own-bottle-from-the-barrel drinking den, to its present cocktail hat/motorbike helmet hybrid incarnation. The Piston Pelican is something of a cultural centre as well as a bar, with regular concerts, and short-film or documentary screenings. Try their Vodka Arrangée, where the spirit has been used to steep rhubarb - and has the tang to prove it.
• 15, rue de Bagnolet (+1 43 71 15 76, pistonpelican.com, metro Alexandre Dumas).

The Pin-Up

A pretty little lounge/bar run by bowler-hatted Lionel, an Oxfam-clad gent of knitted cardigans and stripy socks. It's a slick mix of pale beams, scarlet Toile de Jouy tapestry and cocktails - try the famous Bubble, made with champagne, vodka and violet syrup - and has basement DJs playing electro to a steamy, intimate dance floor.
• 13, Rue Tiquetonne (+1 42 33 04 86, facebook.com/lepinup, metro Etienne Marcel or Réaumur Sébastopol).

Panic Room

The Panic Room belies its name with a laidback vibe. A well-stocked bar, with established and "newly discovered" cocktails, such as the Goum - cucumber, coriander, cognac and ginger - serves an eclectic clientele. With soul DJs on two levels, there's comfy seating, spaces for dancing; rooms for private parties, acoustic concerts - and even bingo.
• 101, Rue Amelot (+1 58 30 93 43, tinyurl.com/klgbl2, metro Saint-Sébastien-Froissart/Filles du Calvaire).

Chacha

A club/restaurant with an international ambience and slinky clientele. Lushly designed by Raphael Bertrand, Chacha resembles a giant apartment, with spacious yet intimate living rooms sporting cosy candlelit banquettes, a baroque dining room and shadowy smoking den. If you're stylish enough, you may be allowed into the VIP area where Franz Ferdinand and The Kills have played in the snug sitting room, or where Dita von Teese may have sipped champagne in the burgundy bathroom's massive bagnoire - it was filled with bubbles every night until the bathers' antics got a little too bacchanalian.
• 47, Rue Berger (+ 1 40 13 12 12, chachaclub.fr, metro Louvre-Rivoli).